Having spent so much time with the canines, Hazael was quick to pick up their personalities and he knew that the dark-colored pup would be a troublemaker from the start. After all, he was always sticking his nose where it didn’t belong… quite literally in some cases whenever Hazael brought scraps of food hidden in his pockets. The celeb was always keen to get into mischief, but he had foolishly believed it’s young age would keep them near his mother. How on earth could he have not realized that this dog, out of all of them, would be the one to wander off if given the chance?
Hazael still couldn’t believe he had been dumb enough to not double check and make sure that the kennel door was closed behind him. It was only a miracle that he had seen the blur of dark-colored fur mixed with the blue streaks in his vision from the elaborate collar Nissa had made for the dogs as a practice for her sewing. If not, who knows how long it would have been before Hazael had noticed the pup was gone?
Quickly grabbing the pup’s mother, his beloved hound Bracha, and a rope lead from nearby, Hazael wasted no time chasing after the bounding pup, giddy in his newfound freedom. He barely made sure that the kennel had been securely locked before looping the road under Bracha’s collar and around his hand before they took off.
Despite their haste in setting off after the pup, the little mass of dark fur was lost in the sea of streets, but Hazael had been smart to grab Bracha who could easily smell the route her rebellious offspring had taken. She led him through the streets, guiding him down the blurry streets and through the narrow passageways that were strewn with objects that could cause Hazael to trip. “Come on, Bracha, where is he?” Hazael kept muttering under his breath in encouragement as the two of them navigated the streets. It never occurred to the fifteen-year-old that their journey was being slowed by Bracha’s careful directions through the dangers that Hazael could barely see. This kind of stop-and-start pace had been normal for years, just like how Hazael couldn’t see the delicate beadwork of the dog’s collars unless he buried his face in their soft fur… but never wondered why his siblings didn’t do the same.
After a half-hour of searching, Hazael was beginning to give up hope that they would ever see the dark pup ever again. Too much time had passed and almost anything, or anyone, could have picked up the dog. “Come on, let’s go home,” Hazael said defeated as he tried to turn the dog in the opposite direction, but Bracha stubbornly refused to listen, pulling the boy along just a bit further, through a few more streets before skidding to a stop in front of a group of men dressed in traditional Judean attire. In one of their arms, Hazael could see a bundle of black fur and blue fabric squirming around. The men didn’t seem to notice the approach of Hazael and the two-month-old pups mother until the nervous Bracha yipped loudly, clearly wanting her pup returned to her.
Turning their heads now to the boy who had truthfully been too nervous to speak up, not knowing who these men were, he said in his native tongue, “Excuse me, but that’s my dog. Thank you for finding him, I am eternally grateful, but please place him down.” An embarrassed blush grew on his face as they stared at this strange boy. Not being able to see their expressions or their features, he was completely unaware of the fact that the awkward silence that followed was due to them not being able to understand him. Not some other unknown factor he was struggling to think of.
“Please, his mother misses him.” He added hastily as he motioned to Bracha, trying to make sense of why none of the men had answered him yet.
Instead of approaching a group of soldiers, Arela was heralded by Teris and Spiros. This both surprised her and immensely pleased her. Soon they were walking down the street, with Arela occasionally pointing out an object of interest and suggesting the next road to walk down in halting Greek. And like always, they followed her lead. It still amazed her that when she pointed out a good shop they stopped and took a look inside. They spent hours going in and out of these stores, and all the strange things inside never ceased to fascinate Arela who went from one object to the next, chattering excitedly in Judean with Greek additives. They seemed so amused at her excitement, Teris in particular smiled at her enthusiasm and even cut in every so often to tell her about something she didn’t know about.
It was upon coming out of one of these stores that a puppy came barking up to their feet. With dark fur and a bright blue collar it was clearly not a street dog. As the trio stared in surprise at the bold puppy it yipped sharply at Arela and she jumped away from it in surprise and maybe a little fear. Looking at the dog reminded her of Hazael and it wasn’t a pleasant reminder. Perhaps noticing Arela’s discomfort, Teris picked up the puppy and held it as it squirmed. She was distracted from her inner thoughts when Spiros gestured to the dog, "Skýlos" and she responded to him with a word of her own, "Celeb".
She did however remain separate from the dog even as it tried to squirm out of Teris’s arms towards her. "Are you alright?" asked Teris as he pulled the pup closer. She nodded, "I’ve never touched a skýlos before." it wasn’t that she’d had a lack of opportunities - Hazael was a member of her family after all but she had never been friendly enough with the boy to even want to approach his dogs. "Well then, now is the perfect time to start." he stepped closer to her, the puppy still squirming in her hands to get to her. Gingerly Arela raised her hand and as soon as it got close enough for the pup to reach she got a very sloppy lick over her palm, she screeched and pulled away to the laughter of Teris and Spiros. She glared for a moment and then fell into laughter with them.
Soon the entire trio was crooning over the pup. It was a fascinating creature and never seemed to be able to get enough attention. It was so fascinating that not one of them noticed the boy approaching until they heard the bark of an older dog. Turning to see Hazael shocked Arela to the core and explanations began to run through her head - she had seen the dog and thought it might be his, the dog was too cute to pass by, she didn’t know they were Greek but out of her brother’s mouth came not accusations but words of claiming. He didn’t know. Arela breathed a sigh of relief, he didn’t recognize her. Then Hazael gestured to his dog and repeated his plea and Arela realized that Teris and Spiros were waiting for her.
Maybe he wouldn’t question it, after all he had proven his obliviousness before. In Greek she spoke to Teris and Spiros: "That’s my brother, he says the puppy is one of his." then, turning to Hazael she swallowed her fear and spoke in their native tongue, "You know, you can’t just walk up to a Greek and expect them to understand you. Most won’t." he really did seem determined to get that dog back though. "Is it really yours?"
If Hazael had to name all the possible people who could have found the missing pup, it was safe for him to say that his eldest sister would have taken up the slot right after practically every other person in Israel. Arela had never shown any interest in his dogs or even in Hazael for that matter. She had always been cold, distant, as well as even spiteful towards both him and the dogs for as long as he could remember. It never even occurred to him that Arela would want to even be near any celeb; let alone be the one to find the missing puppy.
Perhaps this is why Hazael looked so surprised when he heard Arela’s voice among the group. “Arela?” He said in shock, his tone making it clear that he hadn’t recognized his sister up until she spoke. In fact, her unexpected arrival may have actually helped her hide her secret from her brother who couldn’t see the details of any of their faces as he was so busy trying to make sense of what her sister was doing out here, that it never even crossed his mind that she had spoken in Greek.
“What are you --” He started to say, intent on discovering what his sister was doing out here with none of their other siblings, but he was quickly cut off by her chastisement. However, this only left him with more questions than answers...
He was talking to Greeks? A small bubble of anxiety surfaced within him when Arela mentioned that little tidbit he had failed to notice earlier. His father, Avriam, was very clear with his children when it came to these foreigners within their city; they were not to be trusted and none of them should ever talk to them if they could help it. They were too dangerous and only hadn’t shown their claws against their people because everyone knew that the Israelites couldn’t fight back.
These warnings and reminders were swirling in his head when he hissed back at her, “They don’t look Greek to me and besides, they’re in OUR city. They should know our language.” What he spat out was almost an exact word for word copy of what their father would say during one of his tirades against the soldiers. It sounded so strange to Hazael for him to hear it in his weak-willed, cowardly voice rather than the large, booming one that belonged to their father.
Taking a moment to pause on what he just said, another realization dawned upon the slow boy’s mind. Just what was Arela doing with the Greek soldiers? She was clearly a part of the group when he arrived so it wasn’t like she had just stumbled across them like he had. It was confusing and he didn’t know what to make of it, his mind not even being able to fathom why any of them would go against what their father had warned them not to do.
He opened his mouth to ask her as much, but he was swiftly cut off by Arela asking if the puppy was truly his. The question died on his lips as he glanced over at his sister with an expression that conveyed a wordless message that said, Are you serious right now?
“Yes, it is.” Hazael said, looking at the blur that was his sister with a confused expression on his face. He then motioned to the antsy dog at his side, eager to be reunited with her missing pup. Bracha’s behavior alone was a good indicator that the pup belonged to him and Hazael didn’t feel the need to state such an obvious fact. However, the mere fact that Arela had questioned whether or not the dog was his brought forth a slight twinge of doubt in his mind. What if he was wrong? What if Bracha’s maternal instinct was so strong that she saw a random puppy and believed it to be hers? It was possible, highly improbable, but still possible.
However, once Hazael’s eyes settled on the little splotch of blue around the pup’s neck, his fears were set aside. After all, it seemed very unlikely that there were other pups of the same darkened coat color running around Israel with blue embroidered collars. Most people didn’t care about celebs enough to give them such a luxury. His next words reminded her of this fact, “Look at the collar. Nissa made it.” Surely, Arela would be able to recognize the handiwork of her own twin sister, even if the collar had been fashioned out of ruined scrap that would only be of use to the dogs.
Bracha kept pulling on the leash he held tightly onto and responded to the pups excited yips with little whimpers as she tried to rush over to her offspring. Hazael was now struggling a bit to keep her at his side and as he tried to convince Bracha to settle down, he glanced over to his sister. His eyes wordlessly pleaded for her to get the puppy back from these intruders so that the mama dog may finally calm down so that they may all have a moment’s peace.
Well, obliviousness was his strong suit. She supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised that her little brother hadn’t even noticed whom he was standing in front of. "Yes id--" the rest of her sentence was hurriedly broken off as Arela remembered the presence of Tiras and Spiros. Though insulting her brother was a norm for Arela it seemed wrong to do so in front of them. She wasn’t quite sure why though. It had been a normality in their relationship for as long as Hazael had been around. It was no secret that she hated the intruder into her family. And yet she had stopped herself from insulting him.
It had been a long time since Arela had stood in the company of both her family and Greek soldiers, and she and forgotten just how nerve-wracking it was. One word from Hazael to their father could spark an entire personal lecture just for her and a closer eye as well. She needed to smooth this over.
Hazael’s hissed words echoed those their father spoke daily on his many tirades against the Greeks. Tiras spoke those words upon occasion but she had never heard Hazael speak them before. It seemed odd to hear father’s words on the quiet and timid Hazael’s tongue. It wasn’t just odd either, for Arela it was terrifying. She hadn’t thought much about how their father’s beliefs would impact the younger children and it was scary to look into the eyes of her little, oblivious brother and see Avriam.
She wanted to say something to defend the men standing behind her, bewildered at the exchange, not quite understanding what was being said. But her mouth remained shut. To defend them would be going against the family, to defend them would be to condemn herself to being stuck in the house forever. So instead she glared. It appeared that, as usual when Hazael appeared out of nowhere, her life was to be ruined again.
The look Hazael gave her after she had so innocently asked after the true ownership of the pup only served to annoy her further. Perhaps to many people it seemed obvious that a boy with a mother dog looking for a puppy with a blue collar must be the owner of the puppy with a blue collar currently attacking you. But didn’t that seem a bit too convenient? A closer glance at the collar and the insistent whining of the dog he always had with him convinced her. She turned to Teris, unsure how to let him know what was going on before deciding not to explain. She motioned at the ground while in Hebrew saying, "Put the dog down please. It’s his." It was difficult to tell how much of what she said had been understood by the pair of soldiers but nevertheless Teris lowered the puppy to the ground.
It was adorable really, seeing the puppy bound up to his mother. It almost got a smile out of her, almost. And perhaps, under different circumstances it would’ve. After all just a moment before she had been laughing. But now she was in a completely different situation. Caught between Greek soldiers and her brother. The oblivious one perhaps, the easiest one to handle but still a brother.
It surprised her how intuitive Teris was, he always seemed to notice her discomfort. His soft voice came from behind her once the puppy had safely reached his mother, "You good?" it took a moment for her to realize that he had spoken in hesitant Hebrew. A burst of pride bubbled in her chest, and only the sight of Hazael in front of her stopped the smile that threatened to overtake her face. Nevertheless her expression brightened considerably as she nodded in response to his question. With a few soft words to Spiros, the pair of soldiers turned away.
Having known Arela for all fifteen years of his life thus far, Hazael was more than accustomed to her using insults to refer to him. It was just an aspect of their relationship (or honestly lack thereof) that he had come to expect. She would insult him. He would ignore it because he couldn’t fight back. It was just as naturally to the two of them as it was to eat or breathe.
So, when Arela actively decided to not insult him, Hazael narrowed his eyes at her, bringing her ever so slightly more into focus amid his confusion. That’s not normal, he silently thought to himself as he wordlessly tried to ask her what was going on. She didn’t seem so keen on giving an answer though, not that Hazael had expected her too. He had learned long ago that Arela was like Avriam in that he was not to question what she did. She didn’t have the time of day to be bothered with nuisances like him. She did, however, seemingly have the kindness within her to step in between the boy and the soldiers in order to ask that the puppy was set down.
After a tense moment, Hazael breathed a sigh of relief when the soldier finally set the pup down. Immediately it bounded over to Bracha, finally putting to rest the question as to whether the pup was Hazael’s or not. Unlike Arela, he beamed at the sight as he visibly relaxed a bit as the stress of tracking down the missing pup had finally abated. A small part of him wanted to immediately reach down and scoop the dog up into his arms so that he couldn’t run away again, but he resisted the urge while the two dogs were celebrating their union. Bracha was a good mother, she would be able to mind her own pup for a moment.
Turning to the other men, he recognized that he should probably say something to them in order to show his gratitude that they had indeed given the pup back… even as reluctant he was to even be talking to them at all given how their father would probably kill both him and Arela if he learned about what had happened today. “Thank you,” He said in shaky Greek. It was one of the few phrases he sort of knew, on account he had heard it said to the family in the store countless times with every Greek who passed through. In truth, he probably badly butchered it as he didn’t know the words, he was merely parroting back the sounds, but hopefully, the men would understand.
The men didn’t respond to him, which Hazael was truthfully grateful for as he wanted to end this awkward encounter between their two worlds as quickly as possible. One of the men stepped forward though and instinctively Hazael bent down to pick up the pup that had started this whole mess. It yipped loudly as the boy lifted him up, causing Hazael to miss the Hebrew words Spiros spoke and the way his sister reacted to said words. She truly was lucky that he was the oblivious one of their family. After all, it was far easier for him to just tune out the rest of the world whenever his dogs were nearby.
He fussed over the pup for a moment, physically checking him for any injuries that might have come about during his great adventure through the streets. The boy breathed a sigh of relief when it was clear that there wasn’t even a scratch on him. It was only then when he looked up again did he notice that the Greeks had walked away, leaving the brother and sister alone in the streets. His eyebrows furrowed at this, unsure of how they had managed to slip away without him noticing, but it wasn’t that great of a concern truthfully. Not when it was compared to the question that had been on his mind since when he had found his sister out here with the missing pup.
“Arela,” He said in his natural quiet tone, but far more timid than usual as he was fully expecting his sister to launch into a barrage of insults as her answer, “What were you doing with those Greeks? You know what father says about them.” He fully didn’t expect his sister to tell him the truth. Arela was not very subtle in her contempt for Hazael during the best of times and this was clearly a situation he was not supposed to know about. He knew that he had probably done nothing, but flare up his older sister’s temper.
But at the same time, there was a small tiny sliver of a chance that she might divulge some sort of explanation. Something that could hopefully put his mind at ease given the dangerous situation his sister was all too willing to spend time with the monsters that dared to call themselves “Greek”
At Hazael’s narrowed eyes and silent questioning Arela knew that her refrain had been noticed and marked as suspicious. Inwardly she cursed and yet somehow she was still glad that she had used her restraint. Thankfully with the ‘release’ of the puppy Hazael was quickly distracted. Hazael’s silent question had reminded her that every moment the soldiers were around was another moment that she could be exposed. That is if Hazael hadn’t figured out already. No of course he hadn’t. He was Hazael.
She was however surprised to hear rudimentary Greek come from her brother’s mouth, more surprised that he would make any kind of effort to bridge the two worlds. Surprised that he would stoop to such a proverbial low. She seized the memory and locked it in her vault, prepared to use his words as a weapon against him, but also knowing that it meant that Hazael wasn’t as similar to Avriam and Tiras as he might like to think.
It excited her but after the soldiers disappeared and his questions bubbled to the surface, she remembered that a single step was not enough. She remembered what she stood to lose if Avriam had even an inkling of what his daughter had dedicated her days to doing. She remembered that she couldn’t trust Hazael with anything let alone her secret.
"What’s it to you? It was your little monster that attacked me!" for a moment Arela lingered over her choice of words, but she quickly put that out of her mind. "You’re just lucky the soldiers saw and picked it up!" It was true, it was his fault. His fault that her secret was coming into question. His fault, just like everything else. "If you weren’t so obtuse and slow, I wouldn’t have needed to find sanctuary from that little monster!"
It never occurred to her that she might be speaking too harshly, it never had before and it didn’t now. The moment of happiness with the puppy was long gone now, without the security the soldiers brought the confidence she needed to approach the puppy was gone. Plus there were two of them now. No longer quite so angry or so worried, Arela continued with just a touch of annoyance "Of course I know what father says about th-" she paused for a second, her original plan to copy Hazael's terms falling through as she found she was unable to bring herself to call Teris and Spiros them. "-the soldiers, but you talked to them too. I heard it. You said 'thank you' to a group of soldiers." With any luck Hazael's naivety would allow her to make him believe that he would be in just as much trouble as she would be in if this got to Avriam.